actually I'm very glad this topic started, I received couple of information, got confirmed my guitar is bst62. tnx greco_burst, hope you'll receive more information about that extra "n" letter which confuses us all. Has any forum member such strat with "beginning" in headstock? I checked some pictures but didn't find any.

thanks Diodibuh!,
I am sure there would be others here too, who agree with you, if anyone is unsure, just ask...

The caps that Bacchus use on BST64V really are rather thick, same as the slabs on BST62 IMHO, however, of course, you only need to check and look at the curve on the base of rosewood, slab is flat, and cap is curved...
Fender in late 1962 changed to a thick curved 'cap', then by 1963 used a thin curved 'cap'.
My Fernandes RST50-64 is truly a 1964 with a thin cap, I think Tokai also did it correctly...and Bacchus are usually known to be 'accurate'....but that is being pedantic

How has this thread told you anything about your guitar that hasn't already been discussed on this forum?

Good point, information from manufacturers has been shady at least, the best way to sort out the specs is to "physically" see these guitars and go from there. Some members here have owned plenty of these guitars and most stuff pointed out in this thread is already known. A good example of factory information is with ESP, for years they denied their Edwards line was made in China, they were even sold as MIJ, when some of us already knew that they were in fact MIC.....finally they admitted they were. Also i have found the information from guys that actually build these guitars as more accurate than the Company version, well they do build them. There is no "exact" cut off point for any model unless it is deleted completely, the left over parts are never binned and end up on future models which add to the confusion, this is also a well known fact, just look at any other Japanese manufacturer that is changing models, there is usually about a 12 month "transitional" period so if a model is supposed to disappear in 2000 you can bet your balls that 2001 models will turn up with the same specs. You won't get this information from the Company no matter how many emails your Japanese friends send for you. And stop telling everyone to send emails to Deviser as 90% percent of the time they DO NOT respond to English emails, thats why you have someone in Japan do it for you. These charts are a guide not a rule.

That is from 1998 catalog, which shows from the headstock type, but yes, I hope they just used those colours as 'standard', and any other colours were probably custom colours.

As for contacting Deviser, sure, of course, they would be preferring communication in Japanese, that is why i had help from 3 others....
I would encourage anyone else to do the same, if you don't get a reply in English, seek a Japanese letter, but, you may have to pay a professional translating service, i am sure it is not expensive, or is it? anyway....we do what we have to do to seek the answers.

I have shared the information i have received from Deviser. I certainly didn't keep it for myself, for my own needs.

Just tro chip in, I've had a LPB BST64V and one the same colour as Mikes and they were very different, mine was sold to me as Ocean Turquoise

Thanks for that John (and also MIJ), I still can't make up my mind, mine looks quite different to Max's. LPB does tend to vary quite a bit, judging from the ones I've seen & had over the years. Ah, if only Bacchus used the good old Tokai colour codes in the body stamp!

As for contacting Deviser, sure, of course, they would be preferring communication in Japanese, that is why i had help from 3 others....
I would encourage anyone else to do the same, if you don't get a reply in English, seek a Japanese letter, but, you may have to pay a professional translating service, i am sure it is not expensive, or is it? anyway....we do what we have to do to seek the answers.
.

I did send an e.mail to Deviser when I bought my Bacchus. They didn't reply. As for getting a translation service, the bottom line is that it's a pretty good copy of a mid 60s cap-board Strat. What more do we really need to know?

I know DaveWW has sent a few emails to Deviser in English and had replies, but you're right Mike, we often get too hung up on the details, the various Bacchus models are great copies of the Fenders they emulate, probably more historically accurate than Tokais, but who cares, they are all lovely!

As for the colour I prefer the shade of blue to LPB so don't really mind what it's called

As for contacting Deviser, sure, of course, they would be preferring communication in Japanese, that is why i had help from 3 others....
I would encourage anyone else to do the same, if you don't get a reply in English, seek a Japanese letter, but, you may have to pay a professional translating service, i am sure it is not expensive, or is it? anyway....we do what we have to do to seek the answers.
.

I did send an e.mail to Deviser when I bought my Bacchus. They didn't reply. As for getting a translation service, the bottom line is that it's a pretty good copy of a mid 60s cap-board Strat. What more do we really need to know?

I sent an e-mail to them last year about my mystery strat and received a reply within 24 hours. Luck of the draw who's checking that day I guess.

Right with you mij! I've played great Bacchus Strats and amazing Bacchus Strats, never had one that wasn't up to scratch, whereas with other brands I've had a few that didn't cut it. I've also had amazing Tokais and Fernandes' too, but you're definetely right about Bacchus consistency.

As for the colors I've had a LPB one (with the warranty card stamped LPB) and it was definetely very different to Mikes.

I currently own the OTM example that was previously owned by Andrew, at Guitars Japan.
The link was provided in the thread previously.
http://www.guitarsjapan.com/2000_Bacchus_BST-64V_SHG_Stratocaster.html
I purchased the guitar from Andrew, some time ago.
The guitar was listed as Sherwood Green but is as close to TGM as one could possibly get , even tho? the Bacchus designation is OTM
The true color of this Start is very TEAL, not Sherwood Green & not Turquoise.

It also just so happens to be the BEST example of a BST-64V out of the five examples that I have owned .........

Better than the yellow one?
I agree about the teal green btw._________________Totally biased towards Japanese made guitars.

...the bottom line is that it's a pretty good copy of a mid 60s cap-board Strat. What more do we really need to know?

This is true, but unfortunately there are certain guitar features or specs that bring higher prices when they are present, so it is important for buyers to know the accurate specs of what they are getting.

It's been posted here that someone has a Bacchus Tele with a full nitro finish, but this would be an exception to what I consider to now be a general rule: most of the Japanes clones are nitro over poly. I'm not making any judgements about tone or playability or whatever (all my guitars are nitro over poly), but the fact is that people will pay a couple of hundred more for what they think is a full nitro finish guitar, and most of them will not be.

Apart from the finish on a Bacchus Fender clone there isn't anything else that is uncertain - they used decent wood, good quality trem and parts, excellent fret work and great construction all round. Specs are more of an issue with the LP clones (finishes, short/long tenon, two/one piece bodies etc)._________________Totally biased towards Japanese made guitars.